Fantastic follow up to 'So Much for the City' and sounding like the lost brothers of Grandaddy.
'With their second album coming in at just over 35 minutes, no one could ever accuse the Thrills of going prog--Let's Bottle Bohemia sticks to the retro formula of the three-and-a-half-minute pop song, making it hugely accessible and instantly likeable. The opener "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" is a bit of a tease as the first chord crashes in like George Harrison's on "A Hard Days Night", then develops a Bowie-esque, glam swagger before hopping back to upbeat guitar pop for the rest of the album. Still sounding roughly as they did on So Much for the City, their style has developed more of its own identity, partly due to the lack of obvious American influences that recurred throughout their debut. "Faded Beauty Queens" and "You Can't Fool Old Friends With Limousines" are insanely catchy, reminiscent of "Don't Steal Our Sun" and "Big Sur"; "Whatever Happened to Corey Haim" is a rousing Phil Spector-esque wall of beautifully arranged sound; and "Not for All the Love in the World" is a rhythm-heavy ballad, led by a booming piano, the only downbeat song on the album. The album closer and sure to be live favourite is "The Irish Keep Gatecrashing", another catchy, almost jig-like number with a fantastic falsetto and harmonies in the chorus, a perfect way to finish the album. If Lets Bottle Bohemia needed to be summed up in one phrase it would have to be "quality over quantity".'
AMAZON
The following review accompanied their first album:
'They hail from Ireland, but on 'So Much for the City', the Thrills sound like they left their heart at an American truck stop somewhere back in the early 70s. Don't be fooled by the name: unlike the Kills, the Hells, or the White Stripes, this band aren't anything to do with the new breed of garage-rock. No, this is knock-off Americana of the fluffiest stripe--a West-Coast psychedelic homage with a sweet tooth and a harmonica tucked in the back pocket of its battered Levis. Neil Young and the Byrds are obvious influences, but it's worth noting that the Thrills deal in pure pop currency. Songs such as "One Horse Town" and "Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far)" might feature twanging banjo and rolling mellotron, but they sacrifice the dubious "authenticity" of the country-rock jam for a busy sound that bulges at the seams with bright hooks and harmonies. Hell, "Big Sur" even snatches some lyrics from the Monkees' "(Theme from) the Monkees"--the sure sign that the band are more into knocking off top-quality bubble gum than digging up the past. Quite right too.'
AMAZON
